The Bermuda Whalers: Chapter XV

Hugh Hamilton

"You know," said Hugh, "we must have been REAL idiots not to notice that 16 came after 18."
"Yes," agreed Ben, "especially since we were going in numerical order."
"It's hard to believe we were that stupid!"
"I know."
"Also, I am quite troubled with the 19," Hugh said. "I mean, unless someone tampered with it, there's no way it could have flipped around without looking lopsided."
"How do you mean?" asked Ben.
"Well, generally if you were going to nail a number to the wall you would use at least two nails: one for the top and one for the bottom. And if you had a third one, it would rest in the middle. This would be the smartest way to ensure its stability. If they chose the three-nail option, which they did in this case, and one nail came out, then the number would still stay upright. The only way for it to spin around would be to remove the top AND the bottom nail. And even then it wouldn't spin around on it's own, as the nail is right in the middle. It would first have to be loosened first, before it could be spun. And even then the spin would be incredibly difficult — the numbers were only a couple of inches apart so it would be virtually impossible to spin them successfully. Also, any spin from any nail in the 9 would make a 6 that wasn't on line with or close enough to the 1. The only way to achieve such deception would be to remove the 9 completely and re-nail it as a 6. This leads me to believe that something is going on here. Something beyond a pathetic plot cover-up."
"I see," saw Ben.
"But if there is something going on here — a plan to fool us — then they would have to count on us being so stupid that we wouldn't notice that the 16 wasn't in the right spot numerically."
"Hey I just remembered something!" exclaimed Ben. "Grace never carried me out of his cabin — I don't know what I was thinking. I recall being at the rail by the side of the ship when he grabbed me. I only saw the mistake we'd made with the cabin when I came back aboard the ship."
"Oh," said Hugh.
And so they arrived at the second 16, though it wasn't actually a 16. It was a 19 that came after 15 and before 17. Hugh and Ben scratched their heads in bemusement and tried the door. It opened. They peered inside and saw a janitor’s closet, no more then a metre in length and width and filled with mops, uniforms and brooms.